1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid composition, a set, a liquid cartridge, an inkjet recording method and an inkjet recording apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid-liquid reaction system using an organic acid has been studied for an inkjet recording method. In the liquid-liquid reaction system using an organic acid, a liquid composition containing an organic acid is brought into contact with an ink containing a coloring material that can aggregate under acid conditions, on a recording medium for recording. When the ink comes into contact with the liquid composition, the pH of the ink is changed to acid, so that the coloring material aggregates. It has been known that if a liquid composition whose pH has been adjusted with a strong base, such as potassium hydroxide, is repeatedly ejected by the action of thermal energy in this system, ejection failure may occur. This is because the strong base dissolves a metal and/or metal oxide, such as tantalum and/or tantalum oxide, in the protecting layer of a heating resistor and thus erodes the protecting layer.
In order to prevent the erosion of the protecting layer caused by polyvalent metal ions in a liquid composition ejected by the action of thermal energy, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-172847 proposes a method in which a sulfonic acid containing an amino group, such as taurine, is added to the liquid composition.
The present inventors however have found that if the method of the above-cited patent document is applied to a liquid-liquid reaction system using an organic acid, it is very difficult to prevent the erosion of the protecting layer of the heating resistor while satisfying the image quality required in recent years.